My 54 is on its way, (updated 10.24)

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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (05.25)

Postby Mike » 2013 May 25 Sat 8:43 pm

So far, I've got a 12 volt wiper motor and defroster...or "Climitizer" as Stude calles it, cleaned, painted and bolted back on the firewall.
The steering is back in, though I don't have a cover or "mast" on the shaft yet.
2/3's of the firewall has a layer of "Dynomat" on it.
The empty "Commander" dash board is in place (was a Champian dash), but not fully bolted in place yet.

I'll get the dash bolted down, probably Monday.

Gonna try to get the 4dr. running...or actually it runs fine...just gotta get it to start..! I think the solenoid is bad or dirty enough to not make proper electrical contact to be able to reliabley start the engine.

Off to the SoCal, La Palma Stude meet tomorrow.

All for now.

Update - At the La Palma Stude meet, I picked up a steering wheel adapter (Grant) for an aftermarket steering wheel. Have a coupla old ones...now just have to choose between the millions of wheels out there. Also got an aluminum (pot metal..!?) breather tube for the engine. Didn't even know they were made. Cleaner looking and MUCH lighter...4 oz's vs. 4 lb's.
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (06-22)

Postby Mike » 2013 Jun 22 Sat 11:12 pm

Back to work..

Ok...as noted, I picked up a Saganaw steering box to clean up the steering feel. Fine, cleaned up and installed. I seem to have a decient one. BUT, I didn't get a cover or "mast". So I had to go looking for one. Well...all I was able to come up with was parts, many parts.
Out of "about" 3-1/2 sets of parts, I just bearly got enough to complete one...and I need two..two 54's..

I'm a little ahead of things here..

I thought...why not just make the later, larger O.D. shaft bushing fit the early (Ross) mast head ? So I set out to carefully open up the Ross mast head to accept the "about" .125" larger bushing... Nice .002" press fit and in the larger bushing went. I cleaned up everything, put everything back together and slid it over the shaft....everything SEEMS to fit well...
HINT....don't waist your time if you want the better box...it won't work with the early mast assembly...! All was well...until I tried to install the steering wheel....the later wheel will NOT work on the Early mast...!?!?
The turn signal switch goodies won't let the wheel go on the shaft far enough..! A coupla hours of carefull grinding fer nuthin..!

Ok...back to my pile of parts. After sorting thru everything and looking to assemble "two" assemblies, I ended up with one complete and one missing the interior horn button assembly and a questionable blinker assembly. I'm close..! I ended up with an "automatic" mast assembly for the driver 54 and a "manual shift" (no gear selector indicator) mast head for the Hot Rod 54. I did some work to hide the fact that it's for an automatic trans. I still have a new indicator cover to modify or make new..

Took all day today to get everything sorted out , clean, sanded and a light coat of paint on the "driver" mast assembly. I fully intend to end up with scratches as I assemble the mast while fishing the wires thru the tube, so I figured a light coat and getting paint in where I wouldn't be able to get with it assembled....THEN a nice full coat of paint after it's one piece again.

Hopefully....I can get it assembled tomorrow (Sunday) if the paint is fully dry..and a coat of paint on the assembly...then Tuesday or Wed. I slide it into place, and hope everything works properly..!

I also got a few new rubber bits in place...hood bumpers and firewall gromets.

I plan on getting a bunch of work done over the 4th holiday as I'm taking the whole week off...!

Later
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (06-22)

Postby Stu Cool » 2013 Jun 23 Sun 3:12 pm

Good to see you are making progress. I plan to move the entire steering from my 64 Cruiser to my '54. I saved everything. Parts car is gone now. Once I get back from the International Meet I need to get busy on the wagon.
Pat Dilling
Olivehurst, CA
'54 Conetoga Retirement Project starting 2012
'53 Custom Starlight
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (07-07)

Postby Mike » 2013 Jul 07 Sun 8:41 pm

Well...had the week off work, but because of the 100+ degree weather for much of the week...I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.
The steering column is in, but...a friend found a manual shift column for me. So, now, I'll be starting all over in cleaning and painting...all just to clean up the top two square inches of the "shifter" section of the column. The manual section doesn't have the pointer or the indicator location....much nicer this way.

I also got busy with trying to finish porting the heads. Sweat dripping into my glasses...! What a pain. I got a small fan that helped some. In any case, I did get the grinding/reshaping done....!!!!! Now I've gotta take one head back and fit it to the block.
When I do porting for people, I always recommend that they notch the block, at least on the intake side to aid fuel flow into the cylinder. I doubt many do it though...it's not as easy as the proverbial "walk in the park"...BUT with all the porting work, and money spent, it's like not doing about 1/4 the work if that's not done..!
So first I'll mark the block then clean, clean, clean and put the heads back together. I may need to go buy some shims to get the spring pressure up to spec. though..

I also bought a set of Total Seal ring to put on the pistons. While the needed size isn't shown in their catalog...a quick e-mail brought forth a positive answer and I ordered a set.
MORE WORK I wasn't originally planning....!

Later for now..
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (07-22)

Postby Mike » 2013 Jul 22 Mon 6:03 am

Well...got a few things done..
I decided not to wait for the manual steering column (noted above). But I did finally do a preliminary attachment to the dash, got the turn signal mechanism and wire harness in place. The harness was a fun task..!
Looks like I need to shim the steering box a bit to center in the dash cluster (Commandor). When I took it apart, I noticed it had a shim (washer) to angle the shaft toward the right side of the car. With the current setup, I need to go the other way, to the left a bit. Two of the three steering box bolts out, shims of some type between the box and frame.

Last weekend, I started the bracket for my "sprint car" gas pedal. I wasn't completely happy with it, so I stopped and did some work on the engine. During the week, I figured out how to finish the bracket. So...I bent up some new supports and welded everything together. I then went out and welded the bracket to the firewall........there went a bunch of my brand new outside firewall paint...! I also made a 2" dia. patch and plugged up the big hole where the original throttle linkage went thru the floor....AND at the same time...plugged up another water leak..!
Glad I finally got that done.

I spent a few minutes trying to figure the best place for the new fuse box. I wish I could mirror image the labeled wire locations, cause the best place puts the labels upside down..! Oh well, not that big a deal.

Doesn't sound like much but the pedal bracket took some time, along with fighting, fishing the wire harness down the steering column..

And on it goes.
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (07-22)

Postby Mike » 2013 Aug 05 Mon 6:00 am

Boy don't the smallest things take the most time..?

I got the ducting in for the defroster, found, cleaned up the wiper switch, painted the nut black. I have to change the ends on the wire harness to the older round connectors yet though.. I finally filled a small square hole with the ash tray. I was going to put the gloove box and door on, but decided to wait till all of the new wiring is complete...just in case. I also painted and installed/adjusted the fender door "open-close" mechanism...don't know the proper term for the vent door..!

Took a bunch of time to remove the heater. With one person, almost impossible...so I got out the torch..! I had (2) of the (4) screws that go thru the heater and thru the floor..the nuts locked up with crud/rust, so I said fine, your come'en out the hard way..! I was going to just replace the whole heater panel, but just decided to weld up all the holes clean, paint and put it back in with some sealer to hopefully keep the water out.

Took me 20 minutes to scrape off an old Mobil service sticker off the door jam, trying not to scratch up the paint. Made it..!

With the steering in place, the gas pedal in place, I decided that the seat bracket/mounts, mount the seats too low. So now...I gotta make (8) new, taller brackets...fun...!

All for this weekend.
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (08-24)

Postby Mike » 2013 Aug 24 Sat 2:06 pm

Well, I'm out of town again.

I did get a coupla things done on the wagon before I left though. The drivers seat is "mounted"...and at a nice height. I put some SEM, rust sealer (older thAn POR 15) on the drivers side floor then a coat of black paint on.

The steering box/shaft is also adjusted to the center of the Commander gauge cluster, along with the mast location.
I got the passenger side seat "extenders" built but not welded to the original brackets.
I put a Grant steering wheel adapter on. I've got a coupla wheels to choose from, but I really want an early Corvette (56/58) style wheel. Just not up to the nearly $300 cost right now..!

I'll be finishing the passenger seat brackets, mounting the seat and making some sort of shifter home. It'll probably be some sort of sheet metal box welded to the floor.

Later

Mike

P.s. -
Gonna look into this later.
(http://hamiltonfuelinjection.com/)
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (09-14)

Postby Mike » 2013 Sep 14 Sat 7:34 pm

Got a little more done.
I think I said a while back about...little things taking so long...!

I decided to lay the Dynamat on the entire floor. Took the drivers seat off, put the Dynamat down. What a pain. To lay it on a flat surface isn't a problem, but to put it on a floor with so many convolutions and of different depths....took for ever to lay it with a few bubbles as possible. And the bad thing...I don't even have enough to do the trans./driveshaft tunnel. The drivers side is mostly done and the seat is back solidly in place. The passenger side has the matting from the back to a few inches shy of where...sooner or later I have to remove the rust and weld in a good piece of steel. The passenger seat is also now firmly planted.
I mounted the AutoMeter gauge panel to te center of the dash, put the gloove box door on...parcially adjusted.

Tomorrow the plan is to build the cardboard version of the mounting box for the shifter...and hopefully to get started on the sheet metal version. If I can get out there early enough and work thru some of the 100+ degree heat again...maybe I can got something positive accomplished.

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (09-30)

Postby Mike » 2013 Sep 30 Mon 6:30 am

Well...back to work. Been on travel for work on and off for the last 5 weeks, but now back to work on the wagon...

I started to make a mount for the shifter but decided on a different way of doing it and need different materials thAn what I bought...so...on to different work.

I removed the rods/pistons from the block. The block does have a light ridge, but not enough to make piston removal difficult. And since I'll be using the original pistons, just the ball hone is all that's going to be done.

After removing the rings from the pistons, I decided to check the end gap....!
Rings from piston #1, checked in cylinder #1.
Compression ring - .030"
Second ring - .028"

Interesting... This engine has a documented 23,xxx miles on it..! Why is the gap so wide..? By todays standards, that gap "should be", .016" (top) and .0125" (.013") for the second...! Even as measured up at the top of the cylinder where there was no wear, it was still way too large.
The rod bearings on the other hand look VERY good. Clean, no gouges or much of even any scratches..! I'll be reusing them too.

Anyway...all of the pistons have gone thru their first cleaning. Removed the carbon buildup from the ring grooves and the gas accumulation groove above the top ring. Now I still have to do a liquid cleaning to remove the rest of the residue from the grooves.

I used the ball hone and 100 strokes in each cylinder to clean up the bores. All but 2 cleaned up real well. One has a thumbnail mark of metal removal. It looks like where some water may have been for a long time (!?). The other, just looks odd. Slightly discolored. I'm going to measure it to see what the story is, larger dia., smaller dia. ..?

So now to clean the bores well and measure and adjust the (Total Seal) ring gap per cylinder with the numbers noted above, put them on the cleaned pistons and reinstall them into the block. This may take some time...as you know...cleanlyness is next to........

Onward...
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (10-07)

Postby Mike » 2013 Oct 07 Mon 6:08 am

Well...finally got my shifter figured out and installed....!
I's not perminant, have to get new fasteners and add a little paint...but it's there.

It sorta "floats" above the floor. I bought a nice piece of Oak plywood (expensive for a 2' x 2'). I used this for the shifter base hoping it might dampen any noise some. I formed a piece of steel sheet into an 8" x 3" piece of tubing welded it together, ground it to fit the trans. tunnel. I then made and welded two flanges on each side to bolt the wood to. Drilled some mount holes for the wood and went out and welded the "stand" to the floor.
The reason I say the shifter floats...is because it's about 3-1/2" tall and even though it "sounds" big by the dimesnions above, it's still much smaller than the base of the Winters shifter. So, unless you open the door and neal down a little, you can't see the stand it's sitting on.

I found out just how easy it is to make noise too...! This particular shifter has pads on each side for mounting switches. Though I may or may not use them all, I mounted (6) switches (three each side), to the shifter base. With the 3" x 8" x 3-1/2" tall "chamber" under the shifter, "switching" the switches makes a lot of racket..! The sound echoing in the stand/echo chamber make a lot more noise than I ever thought it would (I put a hole in the wood to route any electrical wire thru). So....it'll need to be lined with the Dynamat too..!

All for now.
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